Ants go High-Tech

National Geographic has this interesting news piece from Bristol, United Kingdom.

— Image courtesy University of Bristol/PA via AP

The study was to find how ants choose nesting sites.

A study based on the experiments, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, showed that rock ants will go far out of their way to move to a better home–chosen based on the personal preferences of a few trusted scouts.

Technorati Tags: Science, Ants, technology, national geographic, experiment

Blog Action Day: Conquering Poverty in South Africa

Today is Blog Action Day: The Conversation on Poverty

With regards to the current context in South Africa, poverty is ,and always has been, a very big problem.  Most people even point this out as the source of all the other problems which South Africans face on a day-to-day basis.  Things like violent crime, lack of education, corruption, etc. are all rampant in South Africa at the moment.

But let’s not all this deter us from one simple fact: WE ARE DOING NOTHING! except, ofcourse, COMPLAINING.  Right, get off your asses and high horses and do something concrete to uplift your communities.  There are NGO’s and other institutions available and you also have your own God-given brain to figure something out to help out people who really do need helping out.

So if you never gave a 5cent piece to the guy at the traffic light begging for change, make a change and start with that. however, I do urge you to aim a little higher ;)

Here’s some South African Welfare organisations which are pretty active in helping out the indigent…

• Gift of the Givers Foundation – The Waqful Waqifin (Gift of the Givers) Foundation is a humanitarian relief organisation supporting the impoverished worldwide.

• Al Imdaad Foundation – The Al Imdaad Foundation is a non-profit humanitarian aid organisation, registered in South Africa.

• Muslim Hands (South Africa) – Muslim Hands is an international relief organisation. Website features reports from projects. Online donation system available.

• Islamic Relief – Islamic Relief provides you with an opportunity to support the poor locally and internationally, by assisting widows, orphans, disabled and the illiterate.

These are the Muslim organisations I could find off hand which are doing really good work in South Africa to alleviate poverty, not only from helping people out, but also from upgrading their skills and education to help them help themselves.  Please send me links so I can add to this list of other organisations in South Africa so that we can get moving with uplifting communities out of Poverty!

The Conversation Agent site gives 3 things we can do to alleviate poverty in one way or another:
1) Volunteering
2) Mentoring
3) Giving

Let’s try and do at least one of these things on an individual level to help those less fortunate than us.

Peace.
: Activism, South Africa, Blog Action Day, Volunteering, Giving, Mentoring

About Time, A Phone Charger Powered by Movement.

We’ve all seen the citizen watches and others which are powered by movement and sunlight, etc. Orange, the mobile carrier, have developed a phone charger powered by “dance energy”.

Adrants points out that they got help from with development of the charger from GotWind, whose unfortunate name refers to renewable energy research, not the thing that happens when you pull Uncle’s finger. The charger works with a system of weights and magnets which creates an electrical current every time you move.

From the Press Release…

“The Orange Dance Charge is the result of months of research into alternate, sustainable energy sources to power mobile phones during summer music festivals…”

The Charger was tested at the Glastonbury Festival.

: Orange, Mobile, Cellphones, Charger, Dance, Movement

South Africa to Launch Battery-Powered Car

In some positive news from South Africa, a battery-powered car is being developed and will be unveiled next year (no, it’s not a toy). This announcement was made by the Deputy Science and Technology Minister, Derek Hanekom. Given the effect on the country with the recent oil price increases and lack of investor confidence with the xenophobia crisis, a new alternative which would help people save money and provide a viable alternative is very welcome.

Read the full story here.

: Battery-Powered Car, South Africa, Technology

Brilliant UNICEF Ad

I love this ad. Very powerful imagery and it fits the message perfectly.

Technorati Tags: UNICEF, advertising, Cool, Pollution, Water

Unilever Increases Focus on Sustainable Palm Oil

Update from previous post on Unilever vs. Greenpeace.

Unilever has taken the recent GreenPeace protests to heat and have really focused on changing the situation on the ground as well as via it’s communication channels. At least, that’s according to Unilever’s communication, let’s hope some accountability will be rendered in order to make sure Unilever is living up to its promises, this statement of mistrust is not baseless, since corporations are known to bend the rules and the PR machines to their will.

Back to Unilever… CEO, Patrick Cescau has announced a new policy on palm oil.

Unilever will begin using Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) later this year, as soon as it is available as a tradeable commodity. For the palm oil it uses in Europe, it has pledged to have fully traceable supply chains in place by 2012: just four years away. And by 2015 all Unilever’s palm oil will be certified sustainable.

Announcing the move at the Prince of Wales’ May Day Climate Change Summit in London, attended by the Prince of Wales and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Group Chief Executive Patrick Cescau said: “We are only part of the solution of course, but we want to be an agent for positive change, as we have been in fish, tea and other areas.

“We are committed to doing this because we believe it is the right thing to do for the people who use our products, for the environment and communities in and around which palm oil is grown and for our businesses and brands.”

Leading environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt, a member of Unilever’s Sustainable Development Panel, said: “We are delighted to see these new commitments on palm oil… These are ambitious targets and Unilever’s readiness to take a leadership role in establishing secure, certified supply chains for palm oil is particularly significant.”

And the Prince of Wales personally welcomed Patrick’s announcement, saying: “This is a ground-breaking development that could make all the difference to the future of the rainforests.”

Unilever is also supporting the call for a moratorium on any further deforestation in Indonesia for Palm oil.

If anything else, this at least shows that one corporation is active in making a positive change in our world. the seriousness of the situation cannot be underestimated both in terms of the environmental situation in terms of sustainable palm oil as well as Unilever standing up in front of the Public in full view and committing itself to making a real change on the ground and not some dodgy PR manipulation.

for urther information on Unilever’s position, you can visit http://www.unilever.com/palmoil

Technorati Tags: Unilever, Environment, Sustainable, Palm Oil, GreenPeace

Unilever vs. Greenpeace: Palm oil and the Borneo Forests

Protests by Greenpeace at a Unilever factory in Port Sunlight, near Liverpool (left) and dressed as orang utans outside the companies headquarters at Blackfriars, London (middle and right)

On Monday 21 April, Greenpeace protesters, many wearing ‘orang-utan’ outfits, descended on Unilever to protest about the use of palm oil in its products. They entered Port Sunlight in Liverpool, UK, at about 6.30am and chained themselves to machinery, stopping production on some product lines.

In London, a mobile advertising hoarding was placed on a traffic island in front of the corporate headquarters and protesters were ‘aping’ around on a seven metre high balcony above the entrance to the building.

Meanwhile in Rotterdam, abseilers unfurled a large banner on the glass frontage of Unilever’s building overlooking the river.

That was a Unilever communication regarding the recent Green Peace Protests against Unilever. When reading the full story though, it wasn’t only the Palm Oil that Greenpeace were protesting over, it was also the fact that the production of Unilever’s products contributes to the destruction of the orangutan’s last forest habitat in Borneo.

What irks me is that Unilever’s communication doesn’t tie the orangutan outfits the Greenpeace activists were wearing with the fact that they were trying to make a point about the orangutan’s habitat. The communication just makes it seem like the Green Peace activists are a bunch of monkeys.

Greenpeace’s report, Burning up Borneo, says that Unilever uses 1.3 million tons of palm oil or derivative products a year, some three per cent of global production. It says the company gets half of this from Indonesia, now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet because of deforestation.

The report says there is currently a massive expansion into Kalimantan’s peatland forest areas by Unilever’s suppliers and accuses the company of derailing international efforts to tackle climate change. - The Telegraph

From Unilever’s perspective, they assert that Unilever does chair the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm oil and that “the real problem is that demand for palm oil has exploded in recent years as demand from India and China has increased. Another major factor is the use of palm oil as a feedstock in the production of biofuels.”

Gavin Neath (SVP of Unilever Global Communications) says: “Unilever has a long history of promoting sustainability, for example in fish and tea. But in both cases, we only made the commitments when we had done sufficient work to ensure that we could keep our promises and maintain the security of our supply chain. This is the responsible and sustainable approach.”

Protesters on the roof a Unilever factory in Port Sunlight and an orang-utan talks to a passing motorcyclist

What needs to be highlighted here is that we should, like Green Peace is doing, hold corporations accountable for their practices. Especially since the main aim of corporations is to turn a profit and increase shareholder value, we need to make sure that this motive doesn’t overshadow the corporation’s environmental and social responsibilities. Equally, we need to give credit where credit is due and Unilever is one of the most socially responsible Corporations there is. Let’s hope their focus on Sustainable Palm Oil will render some fruitful results for everyone… including the Orangutans.
UPDATE: Unilever Increases Focus on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Technorati Tags: Unilever, Green Peace, Environment, Activism, Protest, Borneo, Orangutan, Rainforests, Palm oil

Mental Detox Week – April 21- 27

The idea is simple: take your TV, your DVD player, your video iPod, your XBOX 360, your laptop, your PSP, and say goodbye to them all for seven days. Simple, but not at all easy. Like millions of others before you, you’ll be shocked at just how difficult – yet also how life-changing – a week spent unplugged can really be.

The guys at Adbusters have been doing the above campaign which used to be dubbed TV Turnoff Week, for quite a few years now. I think it’s a great exercise in general even if we don’t totally disconnect ourselves from technology but just take a break from it all. Go outside, take a walk, play a sport, read a book. We do need some form of balance in our lives and I feel this initiative could be a very rewarding exercise. I don’t agree with it being just one week though… this should be a weekly habit where you take time off from the Robot-Race and just chill with a world other than the virtual.

Renew yourself, Disconnect.

Technorati Tags: Mental Detox, Turnoff, Relax, Disconnect

Beyond Darwin & Global Cooling

Two interesting stories I’ve been reading lately.

1) BBC: Global Cooling?

World Meteorological Organisation’s Secretary General says that the Earth’s Temperature to cool down in 2008, Thanks to La Nina (Opposite of El Nino), proving that the Earth is more resilient than we thought at controlling it’s own temperature.

2) WIRED: Beyond Darwin – Way Beyond

Trying to explain why certain jumps in evolution and adaptation which seem to defy explanation through solely individual properties or genetic changes. Scientists are now applying the evolution theory to larger groups calling them super-organisms. Including the Social Context and it’s ability to affect the evolution of groups as a whole. They example they use is the honey bee colony, where the individual characteristcs of the bees themselves have no change whatsoever, however the cahracteristics of the colony itself changes.

Technorati Tags: Darwin , Evolution, La Nina, El Nino, Global Cooling, Temperature, Climate Change

Amazing Environmental Architecture – Paris

Vincent Callebaut, a French architect, has plans to build a very post-modern looking Anti-Smog innovation centre which will serve as a super center of some sort where people can hang out and do arbitrary things like look at art, eat, meet, shop, etc. He plans to suspend the building above the Canal de L’Ourcq to remind Parisians to be ec-conscious and at the same time look really cool. The specs on the building are even more interesting…

- 2700 square feet of solar panels will produce enough energy to power the building and more.
- A structure coated is with titanium dioxide, called the Solar Drop, which reacts with UV rays from the sun that break down smog using photo-catalysm – a process which at the presence of light produces hydroxyl radicals and holes (h+), which react with organic materials and harmful gases to produce water and carbon dioxide. There is no additional pollution introduced in this purification process.
- Rainwater is collected from the rooftop for use in the building.
- A helical, 148-foot tall “Wind Tower” captures breezes coming across the canal and turns it into energy. Images by Vincent Callebaut

Link

Technorati Tags: Design, Environment, Photocatalysm, Paris, Vincent Callbaut